Meeting In The Forest
by Mika Of The Leaf
Summary: SakuraxKabuto, please read and review. Takes place eight months after the end of the Chunin Exams. I decided to turn it into a longer story. :
1. Chapter 1

**A Little Author's Note: **I do not own the characters of Naruto, or the villages of Naruto. I simply own the plotline. I make no money off of this. Please enjoy reading, and review if you will, please. ^_^

_He's not going to show up, Sakura. Why are you even waiting here for him? It's the middle of the night, and Kakashi-sensei called a meeting really early tomorrow—_

"I see you decided to come after all."

Sakura gasped in surprise when she heard the cool voice behind her, grabbing for a kunai out of her holster out of instinct as she turned around to face the man whose voice she'd heard. Sure enough, he was standing there, a smirk on his face, his glasses reflecting the moon's light, making his expression unreadable.

"It's late, Kabuto." She told him, her voice frosty and cautious.

He chuckled under his breath. "Heh. It's always late when we meet up, Sakura-chan."

"I was thinking about that earlier today, and I've come to a conclusion."

"Oh?" Kabuto asked her, his voice uninterested as he crossed the expanse of grass between them, closing the gap that separated them from one another. Sakura's breath hitched in her throat as he stepped up to her, his chest only inches away from her own as she looked up at him. "And that would be?"

"I don't think this is a good idea." She told him, stepping back hesitantly. Her thoughts were never quite as clear as she'd like them to be whenever he was in close proximity to herself.

Kabuto chose not to respond, bringing his gloved hand up to touch her cheek lightly, the tips of his fingers sending shocks down her spine. Sakura shivered in response, hating how her body turned against her whenever Kabuto touched her. Kabuto smirked down at her, again closing the space between them and tilting her head up to meet his gaze.

"You're right. It's not." He confirmed her conclusion. "In fact, I'd venture that it's a horrible idea."

Sakura forced her expression to harden, and stepped back from him. No words were needed to explain what she was feeling, and Kabuto was amused by it. She was angry, but her rage wasn't directed at him. No, it was directed at herself. She was angry that she'd let herself give into the feelings she felt for him. Kabuto grabbed her wrist with his free hand, and she immediately tried to pull it free.

"Let me go, Kabuto." She insisted.

"Do you really hate me as much as you claim, Sakura?" He asked her.

"What do you mean?" She asked him, her eyes widening. "Of course I hate you! I'd kill you, if it weren't—"

"Weren't for what?" He pressed on, his grip on her wrist tightening. "A good shinobi never hesitates, Sakura. You've had many opportunities to kill me. If you hate me as much as you say you do, what's standing in your way?"

Sakura made a low growl with her mouth and tried to pull her wrist away one more time, to no avail. She knew that physically, Kabuto was much stronger than herself; without the use of ninjutsu, she wouldn't be able to free herself from his hold. She knew that she had no choice now but to tell him the truth she'd been hiding from him all along; a truth she'd been trying to hide from herself.

She should have known way back when the Chūnin exams had first begun, when he'd saved herself and Naruto from opening the scroll, that she needed to stay as far away from him as humanly possible. She'd seen something dangerous in the seemingly aloof, secretly genius man. But she'd also felt a sort of thrill being around him; watching him move and use his skills had amazed her, and she'd grown fond of him in the span of only a few short hours of being with him in the Forest of Death. Later on, when they'd been ambushed right outside the tower, she had felt an immense fear when she'd seen him get injured no less than three times saving them; something that she couldn't be sure she would do for a group of people she knew nothing about.

After the exams, she'd learned that he was in fact a spy for Orochimaru. She'd felt hurt; betrayed, even. The man she'd built up in her mind's eye as someone who was so much different than Sasuke; She had thought that perhaps she and Kabuto could become friends.

And then one night, he'd come to her bedroom. She'd been shocked, finding herself unable to move or speak. She'd thought he'd come to kill her, and he had told her that she was correct. He had told her he was going to kill her, and she'd believed him. There had been no hesitation in his smooth voice; no emotion in his coal black eyes. He'd held his kunai at her throat, prepared to slice it, when he'd suddenly stopped.

He had told her since then that he'd refrained from killing her because she'd begun to cry, though Sakura wasn't convinced. He had made a deal with her; he would not kill her or her friends if she would meet up with him in the forest outside of Konoha at midnight a week later. The night she'd met up with him, Kabuto had surprised her by kissing her. He hadn't gone into emotions that night; he had simply told her that he thought they could work something out. At first, Sakura had been disgusted. She'd told him that she'd rot in hell before she would sleep with the enemy. But it had been futile; Kabuto knew her weakness, and he'd used it against her.

"_If you don't show up when I ask, I'll kill Sasuke and Naruto. You don't want their blood on your hands now, do you?"_ He had told her. She had faltered, and given into Kabuto's request.

They'd now been meeting up in the forest once a week for the last eight months. Somewhere along the way, she'd managed to get Kabuto to confess that he wouldn't have killed Naruto or Sasuke, and she'd been tempted to stop their meetings then. But she found it too difficult to stop seeing Kabuto. She had broken the one rule she'd told herself she'd never allow herself to break when it came to relationships.

She had become attached.

It had started out small. She would find herself having random dreams of their encounters, wishing secretly for more time with him. Eventually, that had evolved into thinking about him during the day. Hell, even if her gaze lingered on Kakashi's hair for too long, she began thinking of Kabuto's and comparing the two of them. Kabuto came out on top every time. Now, eight months after their meetings had begun, Kabuto was all Sakura could think about.

"If it weren't for _what_, Sakura?" Kabuto pressed, bringing Sakura out of her thoughts. She lifted her jade green eyes, meeting his charcoal ones in an intense gaze before speaking, her voice cracking with emotion.

"If it weren't for how I feel for you, I would kill you." She whispered, hating the words even as she spoke them. She saw the smirk form itself on Kabuto's face, and frowned angrily. He wasn't supposed to be smiling; it wasn't a humorous thing.

"That's a good way to get yourself killed, Sakura." Kabuto chided her. "Emotions are a dangerous thing. Especially when it's the enemy that they're directed at."

Sakura's breath hitched in her throat, and tears began to well in her eyes. She didn't reply to his words; she knew what he was saying.

Once again, he was going to betray her. He was going to kill her this time. There was no mistaking the tone in his voice.

He deftly grabbed her other wrist and lifted them both above her head, pinning them both against the tree behind her with his hand, using his other hand to draw a kunai out of the holster on his leg. He brought it up to Sakura's face, dragging the tip slowly along her jaw line, careful not to draw any blood, moving the blade slowly.

"I could kill you right now and you wouldn't even have time to know it," He murmured, his voice low as the blade moved slower, moving down her neck now, tracing her sensitive tendons.

"Then do it," She replied harshly, keeping all traces of fear out of her voice. Kabuto could kill her, but Sakura would be damned if she'd let him take her pride too.

Kabuto chuckled, pulling the kunai away from her knife and putting it back in the holster on his leg. He lowered his face to hers, kissing the corner of her mouth and then moving his lips along the same path the kunai had taken, kissing gently enough to not leave any marks on her skin. Sakura's eyes widened; she hadn't been expecting this.

Finally, Kabuto let her hands go, letting them fall down to her sides. He stepped back from her and smirked.

"It's getting late," He told her, mocking her earlier statement as he turned away from her. "Same time in a month."

Sakura didn't have time to respond as she watched Kabuto take off at a run, jumping up into the tree branches and moving much too quickly for her to stop him. Confused about what had just happened, Sakura began walking back into the village, thinking about why Kabuto had chosen not to kill her and what it meant. She sighed, telling herself that she'd ask him about it next time, knowing that she would never get an answer from him.


	2. Chapter 2

_You should have just killed her_.

The thought snuck into Kabuto's mind like a parasite as he moved deftly through the forest trees, moving fast so that he would reach Oto by morning. He knew his absence had already been noted; he wasn't an inept shinobi, after all. But if he could get back by morning, it would be less suspicious that he had disappeared in the night yet again.

He knew that he couldn't keep this up, his meetings in the forest with Sakura. Someone was going to find out, that much was inevitable. Whether it be Orochimaru sending someone to spy on Kabuto to discover where he went, or whether it was Kakashi. Someone was going to find out and when they did, it wouldn't be pretty.

_You've had countless opportunities, Kabuto. Countless times that you could have killed her and ended this, and yet you've resisted every time. _

He pushed that thought out of his mind as well, not liking the fact that he had, in his own way, become attached to the pretty Leaf shinobi. She was nothing special; nothing extraordinary. Well, unless he was counting her extraordinary cowardice a few years back, though even that quality had disappeared over time. He'd seen that tonight when she'd held her head high even as he held his kunai to her throat.

He had seen the look of shinobi pride in her eyes. It had told him that he still had not won her over, even though he liked to believe he had. She was still just as untamed as she had been that first night he'd gone to her bedroom. A pang clenched his heart like a cold hand when memories of that night flooded his mind, causing him to momentarily stop for a few moments.

He couldn't quite say why he had gone to kill Sakura that night. Certainly, he'd had no real reason to. He'd gotten to know her and he'd used her information when they'd been in the Chūnin exams, but he'd never felt particularly thirsty for her blood. She'd simply been a tool he'd used to get what he'd needed at that point in time.

A sigh fell from his lips as he continued moving through the trees, knowing that by now, Yoroi would possibly be looking for him. There were several experiments that needed tending to in the morning, and certainly Kabuto would need to be there to do them. But even the knowledge that in the morning, he would once again need to put on the mask that he had no cares about anyone except Lord Orochimaru; that he had no concern for any other living being, he couldn't stop thinking about Haruno Sakura. And that more than anything angered Kabuto. One thing was for sure. By this time next month, he was going to need to make a decision. He was either going to need to let go of Sakura and end their meetings, or he was going to need to kill her.

When Sakura woke up the next morning, the first thought in her mind was how shocked she was that she was still alive after last night. She had been certain that Kabuto was going to end her life; that he was going to kill her with no mercy, like he seemed to have done to so many other people. It needn't be asked for her to realize just how lethal and sadistic Kabuto could be, after all. It could be seen behind his carefully-guarded coal eyes.

Though, she also couldn't help but wish that he _had_ killed her because then she wouldn't be in the mess she was in right now. She was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, and even her shinobi training couldn't help her choose which path to take under these circumstances. Should she follow her heart, and continue seeing Kabuto regardless of the fact that it was, in a way, betraying her beloved village? Or should she listen to her gut and kill him the next time they saw one another?

The mere thought of killing Kabuto sent a cold chill down her spine, nearly bringing tears to her eyes. Killing him would break her heart, there was no doubt about that. She had grown attached to him; perhaps even loved him, though she tried to tell herself that wasn't the case. The last time she had loved, it had ended in heartbreak. Sakura didn't know if she could go through that a second time.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Kakashi jump to her window before he slid inside, leaning up against the wall with his eyebrow arched as he watched his young student get her things together.

"It would seem that you forgot the meeting this morning, Sakura," he spoke in his usual manner, crossing his arms over his chest. Sakura jumped when she heard his voice, having not expected it. She spun around on her feet, coming face to face with her sensei before she frowned apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei," she murmured. "I slept in."

Kakashi didn't say anything, just stood there looking at her for several moments before he cleared his throat, letting his arms drop to his sides before he looked straight at her. "Asuma told me he saw you leaving the village last night, Sakura."

_Just stay calm. Just stay calm,_ Sakura told herself before she tried to come up with a plausible explanation as to why she would have left the village last night. She knew it would be hard to fool Kakashi; after all, he was one of the better sensei in the village and he was smart. He'd see right through her if she didn't learn how to lie fast.

"I…" She started, faltering for only a moment before she lifted her head to look up at him. "I couldn't sleep. I was wondering what the meeting would be about today, and it kept me up. I just went for a little walk, that's all."

_Oh, like he's going to believe that. He'll see right through it. He'll know that something's going on. He'll—_

"Alright. Next time, perhaps you should walk in the village. Some would think you were up to something, Sakura."

She nodded and watched as he walked back over to her window. She didn't expect him to say anything else, and then turned to face him when he said her name once again.

"And by the way, Sakura," he cleared his throat. "That meeting was last week, not today."

The silver-haired man didn't say another word before he leapt out of her bedroom window, leaving Sakura standing there, face drained of color. He had to know something was up, she told herself. Kakashi would never let something like that slide; never accept a lie so easily. And she wasn't stupid; wasn't naïve like she had once been. She'd seen recognition of her lie in his eye when she'd told him she'd gone for a walk. That only meant that it was going to be more difficult to continue seeing Kabuto.

A sigh fell from her lips as she sat down on the edge of her bed. She had no idea what to do and it was driving her insane. She cared about Kabuto; cared about him enough to continue seeing him on her own free will, regardless of the fact that he'd made threats on her life and those around her as well. She didn't want to see him get hurt, but at the same time she couldn't live with herself if Naruto and Sasuke got hurt as a result of her angering Kabuto by ending their meetings. What was she supposed to do, she wondered? What _could_ she do?

The simple fact of the matter was that now, after eight months of meetings with Kabuto, a decision needed to be made. She needed to figure out what she was going to do and follow through the next time she saw him because if she didn't, people were going to get hurt. And if there was one thing that Sakura couldn't live with herself if it happened, it was people getting hurt at her expense.


End file.
